Northumberland music competition impacted by teachers' protest

Festival hoped to expand this year

Northumberland Hills Music Festival

Karen Longwell / Northumberland News

GARDEN HILL -- Music students and siblings Tom Haché, 14, left, Nathan Haché, 15, and Emily Haché, 12, play a bit of music with teacher Dianne Pendock. Ms. Pendock, who is also an organizer for the Northumberland Hills Music Festival, would like to see more students enter this year. January 30, 2013

NORTHUMBERLAND -- The music has gone silent in the halls of some Northumberland public schools as the teachers' protest continues across Ontario.

Work-to-rule opposition to Bill 115 has cancelled extracurricular activities in public schools across the province. The loss of choirs and band practice is one result of the teachers' protest.

A local competition, the Northumberland Hills Music Festival, is seeing the impact, according to festival chairwoman Dianne Pendock.

The festival started small last year, with piano and strings students invited to enter, but was festival was very successful, she said. This year organizers wanted to add a vocal competition but most entries would have come from public school students in choirs, she said. The public schools no longer run these extracurricular activities so the festival organizers decided to hold off adding a vocal competition this year.

What is going to happen to the musical kids. - Dia

The Northumberland festival could be twice as big with wind and vocal competitions, she added. The interruption in music programs at public schools concerns Ms. Pendock.

"What is going to happen to the musical kids?" she said.

After a long break it could be difficult to get students back into music programs, she said.

Similar problems are occurring in festivals across the province. In Toronto, the Kiwanis Music Festival has lost more than two-thirds of its usual 35,000 participants in the GTA. Of the 500 groups that usually compete in the Kiwanis Music Festival of Greater Toronto, 95 per cent are schools, with students from grades 1 to 12, said Pam Allen, general manager for the Kiwanis Music Festival of Greater Toronto. Only about 10,000 students have registered this year, she said, "about one-third the usual number, and most are from Catholic and independent schools, and a few public schools where the program is taught by itinerant teachers who are not in the teachers' union."

Extracurriculars were withdrawn due to the teachers' opposition to Bill 115, which imposed new employment contracts on them.

The teachers' union plans to re-evaluate its current stance on extracurricular activities on March 1, said Gerard O'Neill, Durham Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario local president.

The ETFO had decided to wait until the new Ontario Liberal leader was in power to see if they could come to some sort of a resolution. He said ETFO president Sam Hammond has had a "very cordial" meeting with premier-designate Kathleen Wynne.

Schools in the Kawartha Pine Ridge district have lost extracurricular activities, said board chairwoman Diane Lloyd. She could not say which schools had lost after-school music programs. In some cases music programs are run by volunteers, she said. The music competition would have been a great opportunity for students, she added.

"It's unfortunate," she said.

The Northumberland Hills Music Festival will go ahead with a piano and strings competition. Organizers encourage students from across Northumberland County to enter. The festival is an opportunity for students to show their hard work and talent and receive a critique from a qualified adjudicator, said Ms. Pendock. The deadline for applications is Feb. 15. The festival runs April 2 to 5.

For more information on the Northumberland Hills Music Festival, visit the website at www.northumberlandhillsmusicfestival.com or call Dianne Pendock at 905-797-1134 or vice chair Helen Torney at 905-372-2290.